I love learning more about queer history. I’ve particularly been interested in research on women who disguised themselves as men for opportunity and survival during the early years of the U.S. This led me to write Crossing the Wide Forever in 2017. I’m back with another lesbian romance during what they called “Westward Expansion” in our history books.
We all know it wasn’t quite that simple, or one-sided. I’ve been reading a great book titled, Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides. This book paints a more accurate picture of the land grab that took place in 1846 that extended the U.S. border to the Pacific Coast. I recommend this book if you’re a fan of American history.
My new historical romance is set a few years later, in the 1850s, in the Kansas Territory. Forever’s Promise is as much about adventure and self-discovery as it is romance. Ultimately, Forever’s Promise is about taking risks against all odds to fulfill a life truly worth living—a life of your own choosing. But it also poses the question every romance writer wants to know the answer to: What risks would you take for love?
I hope you enjoy the story.
Wesley Holden migrated west with her brother, Clyde, to build a life neither of them could hope for back East. To share the homestead claim, Wesley had to disguise herself as a man. As brothers, Wesley and Clyde began to carve a new home out of the Kansas frontier. When Clyde is unexpectedly killed, Wes is left alone with the farm, determined to carry on, but more isolated as the days pass.
Romanced and abandoned, Charlotte Rose embarks on a journey west in search of a better life. But the trip is cut short by disaster. Even worse, Charlotte can’t return home because she discovers after arriving in Kansas that she’s pregnant. Her only hope is to find a frontier husband. Desperate and out of options, Charlotte is resolved to win Wes’s heart.
Allowing Charlotte to get too close is dangerous. If Wes marries, she’ll have to reveal her secret and risk everything for a woman who might never really love her, but resisting Charlotte is easier said than done.
Missouri Vaun 